How the Sprint to Live Kills our Time
- Max the Ronin that Writes
- Aug 29
- 8 min read
Updated: Aug 30
Whats up Y'all.
When it comes to success and living life to the fullest, what phrases do you commonly hear?
Fake it til you make it.
Work hard, play hard.
Be about your purpose.
Get the Bag.
Have Discipline and Consistency.
Push Through.
Grind. Hustle. Respect.
Make Your Dreams come True.
Sacrifice Sleep. Eliminate Distractions.
Show em' Who's Boss.
But there's one that really gets me thinking...
Time is of the Essence. Do it Now.
Though I understand the sentiment, I also feel that there is a caveat that we often overlook. Time doesn't last forever. However, we must savor the time while we have it, by slowing down and taking pause to embrace the moments that we hustlers and achievers so often miss.
We say time matters when we're DOING, because if we're not DOING, we're wasting time. But in an age where instant gratification is the language of the world, and people are deemed 'poor' and 'losers' for standing still or taking their time, I'm here to say those that take no pause are quickly racing to nothingness.
Their sprints will eventually kill them all, with nothing to celebrate in the hereafter.
To drive this home, I'll hit you with a few quotes on taking YOUR time to pause or go slow, along with my interpretation in this Quotessential.
It is more important to go slow and gain the lessons you need along the journey than to rush the process and arrive at your destination empty.” — Germany Kent
Each morning I get up at 5AM for my morning walk or jog...somewhere. I never plan my routes, I just go where I feel I want to go. The past few days the sky has been clear to see the stars, but this morning, I got a beautiful view of Orion's Belt, the Big Dipper, Little Dipper...so many clusters of stars just RIPE for the taking.
As I was speaking to the universe about my plan to write this, I paused and looked up. I soaked in the beauty of it all. The coolness of the 58 degree breeze, the sounds of the birds chirping and the crickets getting their sounds in before the sun broke the horizon. The twinkles of the stars themselves as they spoke of wonder and cosmic knowledge reminding me to take heed and be grateful for this and many other moments of pause. The moment reminded me that I was in the right place at the right time.
As a man of balance and calm it spoke to me in near silence, and I was fed. I continued to walk proud I took a moment and gazed up at a display of the beauty of life. Tried to take a picture but...yeah my camera ain't that great! The lesson in this story is take the time to go slow. Pay attention to what is around you will all your senses, especially your mental and your intuition. There are always lessons to be learned when we slow down or pause to observe without judgement. When we take the moment to allow ourselves to be, while the rest of the world dives at stimuli, we see what they don't...calm within the chaos.
Are you aware that rushing toward a goal is a sublimated death wish? It’s no coincidence we call them ‘deadlines.’” — Tom Robbins
This one really made me chuckle because it reminds me of something I heard awhile back. Someone was talking about words that secretly mean our demise such as diet... Where you 'starve' yourself. The word literally has the letters Die in it.
We're taught to make a whole bunch of needle-moving goals and charge quickly towards them at all costs.
You must meet the deadline by producing X amount per hour or by day. You must get this article done by X time. The book published by X time. And what happens if you slowed down and said no?
I'll take my time?
You're a loser...
You failed yourself...
You disappointed others... I guess you didn't want it bad enough.
That's all bullsh*t to be honest. We want others to see us so bad we run right past everything to get it done...
No pause...
No celebration...
Off to the next goal or the next mission.
But what if taking moments to observe...
To deep think...
To find ways to be more effective and conducive to YOURSELF and your goals or values..
What if slowing down didn't deplete your work ethic, but granted you a way to enhance or enjoy it more? You'd have more of a reserve for those production bursts and still have room to breathe to take care of yourself and soak in what really matters... You.
Instead, we grind ourselves to death to complete a list that is never truly satisfied. Slowing your pace or taking pauses doesn't make you less successful, but rather it reinforces the value placed on yourself. It's not to eliminate stress, but rather to redistribute it across time in a healthy way.
If you’re always racing to the next moment, what happens to the one you’re in? — Nanette Mathews
Racing.
The drive to be first in class... In everything. When we race, we often overlook what or who surrounds us and the moments that matter. What is truly more important... Being first to say you did it, you won? Or simply BEING? It's no secret as we get older and start to reflect more about our lives.
Will you remember how many accolades you received?
The deals you closed?
The empire you built?
How your name buzzes on media and the social feeds?
The whirlwind of conferences and interviews you've had early in your life?
Or...
Will you remember the toll on your health in every aspect?
How you can barely move or sleep at night? How your heart pounds whenever you think of that next deal?
Will you remember the family you chose to NOT come home to in order to grind for the appearance of a winner fast and ruthless?
Rushing has robbed you of moments of clarity and now time has stripped you of its luster like a rusty coat of paint... Which ties into a similar quote about time and age.
He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden. ~ Plato
The faster we go on the grind, the more we deteriorate ourselves and our surroundings. The more we push for the 'death-lines' in the sand, the more irritable we become. We get angry, anxious, sloppy, negligent on other aspects of our lives that matter. We snap on people closest to us all because we want to win RIGHT NOW.
But what happens when you go too fast in a race? Your vision gets clouded, your muscles strain to keep the pace.
Your lungs are overcooked and makes your breath more shallow and erratic.
Wind gusts are more likely to throw you well off course or slow you down.
The thrill of moving fast may be intoxicating, but too much of anything never bodes well for the long term. What happens when you move at top speed and hit a roadblock you didn't see? You crash and burn. You get injured. Your trajectory thwarted quicker than if you took your time to plan and flow rather than go against the nature of the moment.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. ~ Voltaire
I don't believe PERFECTION, the same way I disagree with a need or desire for competition to acquire resources and prestige. However, when we are seeking to polish what it is we are doing, we cannot do it in haste.
To keep up with the Joneses.
Because we're afraid to be left out of the crowd.
Because of the survivalist and lack mentality mindsets that plague more of us everyday, with the perception of the rich being the enemy, and taking advantage of those of us below the belt.
But what if we focused on one thing at a time rather than half ass the many?
What if we took our time to build knowledge and actionable intelligence to do what we're best equipped to do?
What if we slowed down to realize we are just doing and not committing to what we truly want to do, to serve our true purpose?
This is my approach when it comes to all things writing. I don't want to rush what's been cooking in my mind. I want to let it flow out like a cup runneth over. It took me a little over a year to finish my first draft of Blade of Echoes. I also took that time to learn more about my craft, without a suspense in mind. Just a commitment to do something 15-30 minutes a day. I didn't rush or make a deadline, and I still accomplished what I wanted to. I finished a novel for the first time since my High School days and I started blogging for the first time since the MySpace era (if you know, you know).
For me, going too fast meant I wouldn't get to ENJOY the process of putting it all together, and I'd likely make messes that would irritate me during the review and edit process...yet something else I took my time on. No matter how long I take, at the end of it all, my words will inspire others and keep them coming back for more.
Where I sit with writing both blogs and my novel. It's a slow and precise cook that adds to the flavor.
Time itself comes in drops.~ William James
This quote reminds us not to focus on getting to the destination in haste, but rather to cherish the moments as they come. Those moments that we blow past often have lessons we need as well as hidden synchronicities that if we took a moment to slow down, we would catch and be grateful for. We try so hard to measure time with watches, clocks, and going fast for the thrill of winning at something, and yet life ticks on, while time slips through our proverbial grip on it.
Ask yourself, does nature care about the flow of time? Does it rush to complete its tasks and goals?
Take for example something as simple as leaves on a tree or a bush...or a blade of grass. Leaves aren't 'driven' like us to hurry up and come out. Why? It takes time to nurture from the bud to the blossom. The same can be said for the tree itself. To go from seed to young tree cannot be synthesized or rushed, and yet we try our best to defy nature and attempt to go so fast that the journey is over before we get to enjoy it.
Leaves have a shorter life span than we do, and yet they follow the natural flow without question. So why must we, the more 'conscious' of the species, push past our 'limits' to get from point A to point B in the blink of a click? Take a minute to ask yourself. What compelled you to have the impulse to go hard and go fast? Why not savor the moment? Why not grow from it with patience? Why not listen or see the lesson from a pause? Does it truly make you 'less than' to not be first or to finish fast? Is second place really the first loser? Or does the tortoise win every time with a casual breath while the rabbit is forced to stop and gasp while looking back at something it bypassed so many miles ago?
Lucky for the Rabbit, it can't regret anything. Only we Humans can.
So slow the f*ck down... And let's stay #WRITEntangled
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